East Ramapo school officials have come up with a plan B if state lottery funding fails.

East Ramapo School District

Board members released a list of planned cuts totaling $3.5-million at a Tuesday hearing, with $700-thousand in teacher retirements, $225-thousand in the additional layoffs of two nurses and a bus mechanic. $564-thousand from reducing the district’s contribution to employee retirement accounts and an additional $275-thousand cut for sports and student clubs.

District officials hope to use state lottery funding to balance next year’s budget. The proposal requires special legislation to be passed to let the district get part of its annual award early.

State senator David Carlucci has drafted the bill to introduce to the Senate. It has not been introduced in the Assembly yet.

State lawmakers are not happy with East Ramapo’s plan to balance next year’s budget.

David Carlucci Facebook

The plan is to take a gamble with “speculative” revenue by factoring in a future $3.5-million in state lottery aid. In order for this to materialize state lawmakers must draft a bill supporting the premature revenue, which could dramatically affect future budgets in the district.

On Wednesday, state Senator David Carlucci called the plan “fiscally irresponsible” saying he is, “greatly disappointed in the school board in the way that they adopted their budget because they included revenue that doesn’t exist.”

Last week, Carlucci met with East Ramapo Superintendent of Schools Joel Klein to create a “lottery spin-up” bill that his office is currently drafting.

Other state officials including Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski and Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee had no details on the proposal and said they will discuss it with state education officials.

The East Ramapo School Board is taking a gamble relying on state lawmakers to come through with $3.5-million in state lottery funding to balance next year’s $209.9-million budget.

East Ramapo School District

If the money does not come through, the district will be left with the difficult decision to make $3.5-million in additional budget cuts, eliminating all sports, clubs and 28 employees. This could potentially affect twleve teachers, two guidance counselors, eight nurses and six security guards.

Normally, East Ramapo would receive the lottery money in September 2014 as part of its annual state aid award. The board is asking the lawmakers pass special legislation that would give them the money in June 2014.

State Senator David Carlucci and other representatives are drafting up a bill that would support speeding up the lottery monies to June so it can be counted as revenue in the 2013-14 year.